Love And Lies

by Dawn Stewardson

  They headed straight back to Cade’s room. Talia had been hoping Harlan might have come back from wherever he’d gone, but he hadn’t. And when they tried Bud’s room again there was still no answer.

  Cade called the desk, asked them to leave a message on Bud’s line, then hung up and looked over at Talia. “We’re batting a thousand, aren’t we. No Bud and no Harlan.”

  “Well, I’m sure wherever Bud is he’s fine, but I can’t help worrying that something’s happened to Harlan.”

  “He’s probably okay,” Cade said, wandering over to Harlan’s computer. He picked up the papers sitting beside it and glanced through the first couple.

  “Oh, my God,” he whispered a few seconds later.

  “What?”

  “Talia, Harlan found his clue. And Roger might be on Carpaccio’s payroll, but he’s not the only one. And he’s not the mole, either. At least, it wasn’t him who sent the E-mail to Joey’s people.”

  “Cade, what on earth are you—”

  “Look at this,” he interrupted as she hurried over to him. “This is the original encoded E-mail. Harlan’s working copy of it, I mean. This writing all over it is his translation. And look how it’s mostly in pencil but there’s a bit of ink, as if he took two separate shots at it.”

  “You mean, like one last night and one this morning?”

  “Exactly. Maybe by the time he finished last night he was too tired to see anything significant. But then, when he looked at it with fresh eyes this morning…well, just look at what he’s got underlined in ink. Look whose name he’s written all over the margins.”

  “Cade, I can’t look at anything if you don’t hold the paper still.”

  When he did Talia stared at it in disbelief. The words Harlan had underlined read, “Take a friendly piece of advice about this.” And the name written in the margins, neatly circled each time, was Myron.

  “Myron?” she murmured. “And you think Harlan’s right?”

  “I think he’s got to be. Myron’s always telling people to take a friendly piece of advice.”

  “Yes, it does add up, doesn’t it. I mean, Myron fell all over himself volunteering to be jury foreman, and this explains why. It put him in a perfect position to influence the rest of us.”

  “Roger and Myron,” Cade muttered. “Both of them working for Carpaccio. One who knows computers and one who’s a crack shot. And they had things so organized they even ended up as roommates.”

  Talia nodded, staring at the page again. Suddenly Cade muttered a curse.

  “What?” she said, looking up.

  “What if that’s where Harlan went?” Cade said. “What if he went to confront Myron in his room?”

  “Oh, Lord,” she whispered. “He might have. And I can’t imagine Myron being violent, but if Roger was there too…”

  “I’ll go check it out,” Cade said, starting off as he spoke.

  “Not without me.” Heart pounding, she hurried after him.

  “GET AWAY from the door,” Cade ordered, pulling Talia against the wall beside him. He wished she’d stayed safely in the room, but there’d been no time to argue with her. Cautiously he reached past the door frame and knocked. There wasn’t a sound from inside. He knocked a second time, then called, “Myron? Myron, it’s Cade Hailey. I’ve got to talk to you.”

  Still no response.

  “Myron,” he tried again, “I know you’re in there, so open up. This is important.”

  “Just a second.”

  “That’s Harlan!” Talia whispered.

  “Don’t move. When that door opens, don’t move an inch.” Cade waited, his adrenaline pumping like crazy. For all he knew, Roger was in there holding a gun on Harlan.

  But when the door opened and Harlan peered out he didn’t look as if his life was in imminent danger. He was clearly upset, though.

  “You okay?” Cade said quietly.

  Harlan nodded.

  “Who else is in there?”

  “Nobody. Only me.”

  Cade grabbed Talia’s hand and hustled her inside. “Okay, what’s the deal?” he said once he’d shoved the door closed and snapped it locked.

  “Myron’s the mole,” Harlan told them.

  “We know. We looked at what you decoded. But where is he?”

  “Well…I’m not exactly sure.”

  “What do you mean, you’re not—”

  “Cade?” Talia interrupted, squeezing his hand. “Take it easy. Harlan, what’s going on?”

  Harlan swallowed so hard his Adam’s apple bobbed. “Well,” he finally said, “Myron went down to the conference room to put a note on the door saying—

  “We know that, too,” Cade snapped. “But where did he go from there?”

  “I don’t know. He said he’d be right back, but that was a while ago.” Harlan glanced at his watch. “In fact, it was over half an hour ago, so I don’t know what’s keeping him.”

  “Let me get this straight.” Cade paused, telling himself to calm down before his blood pressure went through the ceiling. “Did you come here and tell Myron you knew he was the mole?”

  Harlan nodded. “I waited for you two to get done with that writer guy. But the time kept dragging on, and it got so late I figured Myron would be going down to the conference room soon.”

  “Okay. So you told him you knew and he said…?”

  “Well, at first he pretended not to know what I was talking about. But then he admitted he was.”

  “And were there just the two of you in the room? Or was Roger here?”

  “No, only Myron and me.”

  Cade glanced at Talia, making sure she’d registered the significance of that. At least Roger didn’t know they were on to anything yet—unless old Gerr had spilled the beans, which was a distinct possibility.

  “All right,” he said, focusing on Harlan again. “After you told Myron you knew he was the mole, then what? How did he end up just walking out of here?”

  “Well…” Harlan’s nervous glances were starting to make him look like a terrified rabbit. “It wasn’t that Myron just walked out of here,” he said at last. “It was that we needed to buy some time, and he came up with the idea of the note. By saying the deliberations wouldn’t be starting till later, we had the whole morning.”

  “What’s with this we stuff?” Cade demanded. “You joined forces with Myron? To do what?”

  “Cade,” Talia said quietly, “you’re asking him a dozen questions at once.” She looked at Harlan. “What did you and Myron need time for?”

  “To find out who’s been trying to kill you.”

  “What?” Cade practically yelled.

  “Cade…” Talia said warningly.

  When he looked at her this time he wished he hadn’t. She was apparently getting awfully annoyed, because the tight smile she gave him was more like a death threat than anything even remotely friendly.

  “Why don’t we try just letting Harlan tell this his own way,” she said tersely. “Go ahead, Harlan.”

  “Well, see, Myron was really upset about that guy shooting at you.”

  “But Myron’s been part of things all along, so why would he be upset?” Cade asked. “And he knows who’s been trying to kill her. It’s Roger.”

  “Roger? Roger Podonyi? No, that can’t be right, because Myron said it had to be a hired killer. A pro.”

  “Harlan,” Talia said, “we’re positive it’s Roger, but let’s not worry about that right now. Fill us in on the rest of what happened with Myron, okay?”

  “There isn’t much more. Once he knew I was on to him he said that if he was going down he didn’t see the point in going alone. He said we should find out who the hired killer was.”

  “But why?” Talia asked. “If Myron’s working for Joey Carpaccio why did he suggest double-crossing him?”

  “Because he said he didn’t know they’d be trying to kill you. And if he had he’d never have gotten involved. I mean, he never wanted to get involved even without knowing about
that. But they made him.”

  “How?”

  “Joey Carpaccio has something on him.”

  When Harlan simply stood there, not volunteering any more information, Cade could have cheerfully killed him. Talia, though, patiently asked him to elaborate.

  “Well, you know how Myron’s got that big job?” Harlan began. “Vice president of his company?”

  She nodded.

  “Well, he used to be a vice president of a bank. Out in California. But he got fired a few years back. Somebody embezzled a ton of money from the bank and they blamed him. He said it was all a misunderstanding, but I got the feeling that might not be true.”

  “Was he charged?” Cade asked.

  “No. And he said that was because he was innocent, which meant they didn’t have any evidence. But you know how banks are. Maybe they just didn’t prosecute so nobody would hear what had happened, just didn’t want to hurt their reputation.”

  “And after that he came to Charleston?” Talia asked.

  “Uh-huh. Nobody in Charleston knew the story. But when he ended up on the jury…well, Joey’s guys obviously wanted somebody they could blackmail. So I guess they started looking for dirt on all the jurors and found out about Myron’s bank thing.”

  “So Joey’s guys,” Talia concluded, “told Myron that either he went along with them or they’d make sure his new employers heard about it.”

  Harlan nodded. “But now that he’s going to get charged with…with whatever jury moles get charged with, he’ll lose his job anyway.”

  “Not to mention that he’ll end up in jail,” Cade muttered.

  “Right. So that’s why he figured he might as well at least find out who’s been trying to kill Talia. Get him sent to jail, too.”

  Cade resisted the impulse to point out, again, that it was Roger. And to point out that Myron had obviously strung Harlan a line.

  But Harlan must have caught something in his expression, because he said, “See, Talia, even though I know Cade doesn’t believe me Myron really didn’t know anybody was going to be trying to kill you. And he feels awfully bad about it.”

  “So how was he going to figure out who this killer is?” Cade asked, curious to hear exactly what Myron’s explanation had been.

  “Well,” Harlan said, “he got out his cell phone right then and there, and he phoned this contact he’s got.”

  “The contact is one of Joey’s boys?” Talia asked.

  Harlan nodded. “See, Joey wants a verdict of not guilty. He doesn’t want a hung jury. So Myron was going to say the jurors had decided they’d never be able to agree. That we were agitating to take a final vote so we could call it quits and go home.”

  “And?”

  “And then Myron was going to say that he needed to know who the killer was, that he had to talk to him so he’d know to get his job done fast, before we took the vote.”

  Cade just stood looking at Harlan, wondering how he could possibly have bought a story with so many holes in it.

  “I think I’m missing some of the logic in this,” Talia said. “What good would it’ve done to get rid of me before the vote?”

  “Well, Myron was going to say that with you dead he’d be able to get everyone else to vote not guilty. That he’d be able to convince the rest of us that either we did it or we’d all end up dead, too.”

  “Harlan?” Cade said, deciding he’d heard enough. “You keep saying, ‘Myron was going to,’ which means he didn’t. So what happened?”

  “Well, when he phoned his contact the guy wasn’t there. So all he could do was leave a message telling him to get back to him right away. Then he went downstairs to put his note on the door. But…well, as we’ve all noticed, he hasn’t come back.”

  “And where’s his cell phone? Did he take it with him?”

  “Uh-uh. He was going to, but I made him leave it here. That way I’d know if his guy called. It’s right over there.” Harlan pointed to where it was lying on a chair. “Making him leave it was the smart thing to do, wasn’t it?”

  “Yeah, that was the smart thing to do.” And if only Harlan had started using his brain before that point, Myron wouldn’t be long gone. Cade headed over and picked up the phone, then pushed the “send” button.

  “What are you doing?” Talia asked.

  “When you push ‘send’ without dialing a number, “it acts like a ‘redial’ button. So let’s just see what we get at the number of Myron’s contact.“

  Once the connection was made he listened for a few seconds, then growled, “Terrific. His contact is a computer that gives out the time and temperature.”

  He disconnected, then punched the operator button and waited impatiently until someone answered. “I need the Charleston Harbor Police,” he told her. “This is an emergency.

  “Myron,” he added, glancing at Talia, “didn’t give a damn about whether you got killed or not. He just figured he could buy himself a few hours’ head start. I’ll bet that after he taped that note to the door he headed straight for the village marina.”

  “You think he’s running?”

  Cade nodded. “I’d say he’s on a boat right now, halfway to Charleston.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  After Cade had finished with the Harbor Police and was trying Bud’s room, Talia turned to Harlan and said softly, “Don’t blame yourself for what happened with Myron.”

  When he stopped pacing and glanced over at her she could see he was still incredibly upset.

  “Don’t blame myself?” he echoed. “Who else is there to blame? If I hadn’t been so stupid Myron wouldn’t be on his way to Charleston.”

  “But if you hadn’t been so smart nobody would ever have known we had a mole on the jury, let alone figured out who it was. So maybe you did make a mistake, but you blew everything wide open before that happened. And everyone’s entitled to an occasional mistake.”

  “Well…I guess. That’s what my mom tells me all the time.”

  “You see? Mothers are always right. Besides, I’m sure the Harbor Police will catch up with Myron. Then you’ll be a hero.”

  “Yeah? You really think that’s how it’ll turn out?”

  She nodded, but Harlan looked only half-convinced and went back to his pacing. After watching him for a few seconds she let her thoughts wander to Roger. Myron might be on a boat halfway to Charleston, but Roger was still right here at Bride’s Bay. And Myron’s insisting it was a hired killer who’d shot at her last night didn’t make it true. The evidence added up to Roger.

  Taking a deep breath, she told herself to stop thinking about hired killers and evidence. It was safe to stop playing Nancy Drew now. She, Cade and Harlan had found out everything they needed to know. All that was left to do was get hold of Bud and tell him the story.

  After that, the excitement would officially be over and she’d be able to relax. Which was just as well. She didn’t think she could take much more of life on the edge.

  Then Cade hung up and shook his head. “Still no answer in Bud’s room.”

  His words started her stomach churning. Where on earth was the man? She began imagining him lying dead in a spreading pool of blood just like Mrs. Wertman, and a little shiver ran through her. Silently muttering a few nasty words to her imagination, she forced her attention to Cade once more.

  “So,” he was saying, “let’s get out of here before Roger shows up. We can try Bud again from our own rooms and…” His words trailed off at the sound of a key in the lock.

  When the door opened Talia’s throat filled with fear. Roger Podonyi was standing there staring at them angrily. From the corner of her eye, she saw Cade’s hand move to his waist. Then she looked at Roger again, wondering if he’d seen the motion, too. Wondering if he could tell Cade had a gun concealed. Wondering if he had a gun somewhere….

  Suddenly she knew how it would feel to be in the showdown scene from High Noon. Only this scene was playing out in real life. Her heart racing, she prayed it wouldn’t turn into re
al death.

  “What’s going on?” Roger finally demanded when none of them said a word. “Where’s Myron? And what are you three doing in here?”

  Talia’s breathing stopped and her mind went blank. She couldn’t have come up with an answer if her life had depended on it. And maybe her life did depend on it.

  Then Cade began casually walking toward her, his eyes on Roger. “We’re just waiting for Myron.”

  He sounded so calm she almost started breathing again.

  “Have you seen him?” he added as he reached her side.

  “No.” Roger closed the door and started forward. “I figured he’d be here. But why were the deliberations delayed? Did he tell you?”

  Harlan cleared his throat; Talia quickly shot him a warning glance. The less any of them said the better—especially him.

  “He told Harlan he was coming back after he put up his note,” Cade said. “But he’s obviously been delayed, so I guess we’d better get going. We can catch him later, and we don’t want to be in your way here.”

  Roger shrugged. “Stay if you want. I’m going right back out. I just need something.” He slid open the closet door, reached in and pulled out his denim jacket.

  Talia’s gaze flashed to Cade. The last time they’d seen that jacket, Gerr had been walking out of her room with it over his arm. The look Cade gave her said he didn’t know what the story could be, either.

  “So,” he said as Roger headed across the room, “you got your jacket back from Gerr, huh?”

  “What?” Roger paused, glancing over at him.

  “Ah…nothing.”

  Roger turned away and opened the top drawer of the dresser. When he shoved it closed again and turned around he was holding a gun.

  Talia stood frozen, her gaze glued to the gun, her brain pounding with the horrifying certainty that they were about to die. Roger had probably killed Gerr because he’d found that jacket. And now he was going to kill them.

  Then, faintly, she heard an imaginary voice asking why Roger was pointing his gun at the floor, not at one of them. Just as she began wondering about that, she caught a motion out of the corner of her eye. By the time she turned to look, Cade had his Browning trained on Roger. He stared at it, his face draining of color.